(US and Canada) Capt. Brian Erickson, U.S. Coast Guard Chief Data Officer, speaks with John Filipek, Sr. Manager of Public Sector Inside Federal Sales, SHI, in a video interview about data literacy strategy, an approach to measuring success, and developing data talent.

Regarding business challenges solved by implementing a data literacy strategy, Erickson says that the entire U.S. Coast Guard organization is on a mission to improve business processes. One of the critical tasks at hand is overhauling the talent management system and workforce development, beginning with the data professionals and then the data executives. He opines that all business unit leaders are data executives and that data is not an IT function.

Another critical goal, Erickson says, is to get the right tools in the hands of frontline operators to make their jobs easier and to reduce the manual entry burden. He further reveals that his team is working closely with the CIO for all cloud computing needs within the organization. Erickson’s team is also involved in starting a software factory within the C5I Service Center to build custom applications for mission sets at speed and scale.

He says progress leads to a desire to have more every week, but he stresses that everyone on the team should be heading in the same direction. In terms of successes, he mentions having a data and cloud adoption strategy, establishing a data governance board and committee, establishing the first Coast Guard data lexicon, setting up the office of data and analytics, and establishing a federated governance structure, among many others.

Erickson also mentions developing data talent and expresses his desire to grow his next CDOs. In addition, he recommends adding strategists and graphic experts to the CDO team to help tie things back to the strategy.

CDO Magazine appreciates Capt. Brian Erickson for sharing his insights and data success stories with our global community.

See more from Capt. Brian Erickson 

We’re Going To Move Data Forward in the Organization